Page 104 - Perished Nations

the leaders of Thebes did not allow him to convey the message of this re-
ligion. Amenhotep IV and his folk moved away from the city of Thebes
and settled in Tell-El-Amarna. Here, they established a new and modern
city named "Akh-et-aton". Amenhotep IV changed his name which meant
"Contentment of Amon" to Akh-en-aton, which meant "Submitting to Aton".
Amon was the name given to the greatest totem in Egyptian polytheism.
According to Amenhotep, Aton is the "creator of the heavens and the
earth", his equating the name with Allah.
Disturbed by these developments, the priests of Ammon wanted to
snatch Akhenaton’s power by profiting from an economic crisis in the co-
untry. Akhenaton was finally poisoned by conspirators. Succeeding Phara-
ohs were careful to stay under the influence of the priests.
After Akhenaton, Pharaohs with a military background came to power.
They again caused the old traditional polytheism to become widespread
and expended a considerable effort to return to past ways. Nearly a cen-
tury later, Ramses II, who was to have the longest rule in the history of
Egypt, came to the throne. According to many historians, Ramses was the
Pharaoh tormenting the Children of Israel and fighting against Musa (as). 35

The Coming of the Prophet Musa (as)
Because of their deep bigotry, the ancient Egyptians would not aban-
don their idolatrous beliefs. Some persons came to them who announced
the message of worshipping only Allah, but the people of Fir’awn always
turned back to their perverted beliefs. Finally, Musa (as) was sent by Allah
as a messenger (rasul) to them, both because they had adopted a system
of falsehood contrary to the religion of truth, and also because they had
enslaved the Children of Israel. Musa (as) was instructed both to invite
Egypt to the religion of truth, and to save the Children of Israel from sla-
very and show them the right way. In the Qur’an, it is stated:
We rehearse to thee some of the story of Prophet Musa and Fir’awn in
Truth, for people who believe. Truly Fir’awn elated himself in the land and
broke up its people into sections, depressing a small group among them:
their sons he slew, but he kept alive their females: for he was indeed a ma-

Harun Yahya
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